How Health Shapes Reentry Concerns Among Incarcerated Adults Serving JLWOP Sentences

• In Event: Stacked Risks of Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP): Childhood Systems Involvement, Adult Health, and Reentry Concerns

Abstract

Introduction: Research at the nexus of incarceration and health often centers on people serving shorter sentences. Less attention, however, is given to those serving life sentences, including those sentenced as juveniles to life without parole (JLWOP). Moreover, we know little about how health structures concerns about critical domains of reentry (e.g., housing, transportation, employment, relationships, financial and technological literacy).

Methods: To fill this gap, we surveyed a sample of 430 incarcerated adults (ages 29-73) in 19 states who were sentenced to JLWOP prior to 2012 using robust, validated measures of mental and physical health and a 25-item inventory of varied concerns about returning to the community.

Results: Respondents had spent an average of 25.5 years in prison and reported an average of >6 reentry concerns, with the most common concerns being the stigma of their criminal history (54%), financial literacy (38%), adjusting to being free (33%), using technology (33%), supporting oneself financially (32%), and obtaining housing (32%). Compounding mental and physical health diagnoses are strongly associated with the number of reentry concerns, net of sociodemographic factors and childhood adversity. Myriad recent health difficulties also significantly elevated reentry concerns, across age groups.

Discussion: Implications for policy and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Dylan B. Jackson, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Jeffrey T. Ward, Temple University

• Daphne Brydon, University of Cincinnati

• Nathan W. Link, Rutgers University - Camden

• Laura S. Abrams, University of Southern California

• Leah Ouellet, Rutgers University